Cell phone personal safety alarm

ABSTRACT

The cell phone personal safety alarm is a cell phone having a panic alarm button on the back of the phone that activates the alarm when pressed. An alarm shield prevents accidental push of the button and is flipped open to expose the button. Activating the alarm causes a loud alarm tone or siren to sound and red and blue lights or other visual alarm displays to flash. Front and rear cameras transmit live video to an online secure database, where it is recorded to preserve evidence. Front and rear lights may be included for night or low-light level video. An e-911 call is made to notify law enforcement and provide the location of the emergency via the phone&#39;s integral global positing system (GPS). In another embodiment, the device is a retrofitting case for existing cell phones that would be able to achieve the same results.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/617,521, filed Mar. 29, 2012.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to panic alarms, and particularly to a cell phone personal safety alarm that produces an audible alarm, establishes radio communication with a 911 emergency response center, provides the emergency response center with the location of the cell phone, and transmits a video stream of the emergency situation.

2. Description of the Related Art

Emergency response numbers, such as 911, are utilized to provide individuals with a quick and easy way to contact an emergency response center when an emergency situation arises. By providing a standardized method of contacting emergency personnel, these emergency response numbers are effective in reducing the amount of time necessary to respond to an emergency. In an emergency, the amount of time required to respond can often mean the difference between life and death.

Response time may be further minimized by employing caller identification technology that allows the operator of the emergency response center to automatically determine the phone number of the caller without requiring the caller to provide such information. If the call was placed from a stationary telephone, the operator at the emergency response center can also determine the location of the caller. Thus, even if the user is unable to verbally request assistance, the emergency response center can still send emergency response personnel to the location from which the call was placed.

However, if the emergency situation occurs in a remote area, it is often impossible to place a call from a stationary telephone at a fixed location to the emergency response system. With the advent of cellular telephone technology, it is now possible to carry a cellular telephone that allows an emergency caller to contact an emergency response center from practically anywhere. The primary drawbacks of the cellular system are the high cost of cellular service and the inability of the emergency response center to automatically determine the location of the caller.

Drawbacks of cell phone emergency use include multiple buttons and functions, which may cause confusion in an emergency situation. Because of the stress often associated with emergency situations, an operator of, e.g., a Smartphone, may fail to properly summon emergency personnel. In addition, these emergency communication devices fail to integrate the functioning of the cellular device with a home alarm system that the user of the device might have. Furthermore, the devices do not have the capability to summon individuals in the immediate area around the device that may be able to provide assistance.

Thus, a cell phone personal safety alarm solving the aforementioned problems is desired.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The cell phone personal safety alarm includes a panic alarm button on the back of a cell phone that activates a panic messaging alarm when pressed. An alarm shield prevents accidental push of the button, and is flipped open to expose the button when needed. Activating the alarm causes a loud alarm tone or siren to sound and red and blue lights or other visual alarm displays to flash. Front and rear cameras transmit live video to an online secure database, where it is recorded to preserve evidence. Front and rear lights may be included for night or low-light level video. When the panic button is pushed, an enhanced 911 (e-911) call is made to notify law enforcement and provide the location of the emergency via the phone's integrated or internal global positing system (GPS) receiver. In another embodiment, the device is a retrofitting case for existing cell phones that would be able to achieve the same results.

These and other features of the present invention will become readily apparent upon further review of the following specification and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a first embodiment of a cell phone personal safety alarm according to the present invention, in which the alarm is built into the phone, as seen from the rear of the phone.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the phone of FIG. 1 as seen from the front and bottom end of the phone.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the phone of FIG. 1 as seen from the front and top end of the phone.

FIG. 4 is a rear view of a second embodiment of a cell phone personal safety alarm according to the present invention, in which the alarm is built into a case for a cell phone.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the phone case of FIG. 4 exploded from the cell phone.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a cell phone personal safety alarm according to the present invention.

Similar reference characters denote corresponding features consistently throughout the attached drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

At the outset, it should be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art that embodiments of the present cell phone personal safety alarm can comprise software or firmware code executing on a computer, a microcontroller, a microprocessor, or a DSP processor; state machines implemented in application specific or programmable logic; or numerous other forms without departing from the spirit and scope of the method described herein. Methods employed by the present cell phone personal safety alarm can be provided as a computer program, which includes a non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored thereon instructions that can be used to program a computer (or other electronic devices) to perform a process according to the method. The machine-readable medium can include, but is not limited to, floppy diskettes, optical disks, CD-ROMs, and magneto-optical disks, ROMs, RAMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, flash memory, or other type of media or machine-readable medium suitable for storing electronic instructions.

As shown in FIGS. 1-3, in a first embodiment, the cell phone personal safety alarm is a cell phone 10 that includes a panic alarm button 22 on the rear or back of the phone 10, the panic alarm button 22 activating a variety of alarms when pressed. A U-shaped alarm shield 20 pivotally attached to the phone 10 by a hinge (which may be a living hinge) locks in a closed position over the panic button 22 to prevent accidental push of the button 22. A user's finger or nail can slip under a detent or recess proximate the arcuate end portion of the shield 20 to flip the cover or shield 20 open to expose the button 22. The shield may be configured as a switch that activates a loud alarm tone or siren which sounds via speaker 14 disposed on the body of the cell phone. A push of the button 22 silences the alarm tone or siren (to preserve audio evidence) and causes the video that has been recording internally since the warning lights were started to be streamed on-line to a secure data base. Moreover, the push of the button 22 activates an auto-dial call to e-911 (enhanced 911) to notify law enforcement and provide the location of the emergency via the phone's integral or internal global positing system (GPS) receiver. Red and blue flashing lights 12 disposed on peripheral edges of the cell phone body are activated to flash when the alarm button 22 is pressed.

Alternatively switch sequencing may be configured such that a push of the button 22 activates the alarm and causes the loud alarm tone or siren to sound via a speaker 14 disposed on the body of the cell phone. The switch sequencing and emergency button location described herein is exemplary and it is contemplated that the switch sequencing and/or emergency button location on the phone may be modified without deviating from the scope of the present invention.

Independent of the alarm button 22, a switch 13 is disposed on the side of the phone and is wired to activate the flashing red and blue lights 12 to ward off a potential attacker, while at the same time activating at least one camera 16 disposed on the cell phone body for video recording to the cell phone internal memory. Alternatively, the camera 16 may be activated by pressing the switch 13, which causes the camera 16 to transmit live video to an online secure database coordinated by a remote server where the video stream is recorded to preserve evidence. Audio may be captured by the phone's microphone and streamed to the remote server as well. Preferably, there can be a camera 16 installed on both the front and back portion of the cell phone 10. At least one light 18 is disposed on the cell phone body and is included for night or low-light level video.

In another embodiment, shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the device is a retrofitting case for existing cell phones to provide the same functionality described above. The retrofitting case includes an upper shell 408 and a lower shell 410 that lock together to retain the retrofitted phone in the case. Electronic circuit(s) required to perform the alarm functions is/are disposed inside the shell components 408 and 410. The top portion of the upper shell 408 has red and blue flashing lights 12 a, as well as a 3.5 mm receptacle 400 for interface commands to the attached phone. The receptacle 400 accepts a connection from the attached phone. Panic audible alarms may be routed via this command to the speaker built into the attached phone. Alternatively, the shell portion 410 may have a built in speaker 14 a.

The side portions of the upper shell 408 also include flashing red and blue lights 12 a. The bottom portion of the lower shell 410 includes the red and blue flashing lights 12 a. Also disposed on the bottom of the lower shell 410 is a charger port 402 to allow the encased phone access to a charger plug. A light switch 13 a is included on one of the sides of the upper shell 408 and controls all of the flashing red and blue lights 12 a on the device.

The rear portion of upper shell includes a U-shaped alarm shield 20 a pivotally attached to the case that locks in a closed position over the panic button 22 a to prevent an accidental push of the button 22 a. The lower portion of the back or rear of the upper shell 408 includes a detent or recess proximate an arcuate end portion of the shield 20 a. A user's finger or nail can slip under the cover or shield 20 a to flip it open and expose the button 22 a.

As most clearly shown in FIG. 5, the cell phone to be retrofitted is placed in one of the shells, and the shells 408 and 410 are then locked together utilizing rectangular tabs 406 on the inside bottom edge of upper shell 408, which align with and lock into slots 407 disposed on inside upper edge of the lower shell 410 to securely hold the cell phone in the shell retrofit case.

When the phone is electrically connected to the alarm case via the 3.5 mm connector 400, alarm functionally in the unit is activated. A push of the button 22 a activates the alarm and causes a loud alarm tone or siren to sound via the speaker 14 a disposed on the lower shell 410. Moreover, the push of the button 22 a activates an auto-dial call to e-911 to notify law enforcement and provide the location of the emergency via the phone's integral global positing system (GPS) receiver. Red and blue flashing lights 12 a disposed on the peripheral edges of the shells 408 and 410 are activated to flash when the button 22 a is pressed.

Independent of the alarm button 22 a, a switch 13 a is disposed on the side of the upper shell 408 and is wired to activate the flashing red and blue lights 12 a to ward off a potential attacker. The cell phone's own camera is activated by pressing the alarm button 22 a, which causes the cell phone camera to photograph through a transparent window or a hole in the upper shell 408 and transmit live video to an online secure database, where it is recorded to preserve evidence.

An exemplary electronic circuit that could perform the aforementioned functions is shown in FIG. 6, and draws from the disclosure in U.S. Pat. No. 6,636,732, issued to Boling, et al., which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. As most clearly shown in FIG. 6, a cell phone or phone case has a microprocessor 44 that coordinates user interfaces, cell phone functions, and emergency alarm functions. Power to the unit is supplied by a power supply (or battery) 45. The unit may have memory 54 connected to the microprocessor 44. An emergency response control program responsible for coordinating emergency button presses with alarm actuation, video streaming actuation, e-911 autodialing, and GPS coordinate transmission may reside in the memory 54 for execution by the microprocessor 44. The red and blue flashing light control button (13 for the integrated unit, 13 a for the retrofit unit) is connected to the microprocessor 44. There may also be a noise alarm button 26 connected to the microprocessor 44. The emergency response button 22 is connected to the microprocessor 44. A home security alarm button 40 may be connected to the microprocessor. Moreover, a cell phone typically has a cellular range light 32, an activator light 36, a low power light 34, a GPS receiver 64, a microphone 24, a speaker 222, a cellular transmitter 62 a cellular receiver 56, and an automatic dialer 52, all coordinated and controlled by the microprocessor 44. An out-of-band radio frequency transmitter 48 may also be employed for auxiliary emergency communications. The transmitters and receivers are connected to an antenna 21.

The red and blue flashing lights 12 (or 12 a) are actuated by a control signal from the microprocessor 44 via their connection to the microprocessor 44. The noise alarm 46 is connected to the microprocessor 44 and may route the alarm to a speaker 222, shown in FIG. 6, or to the speaker arrangement 14, 14 a, shown in FIGS. 1 and 5, respectively.

It is to be understood that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, but encompasses any and all embodiments within the scope of the following claims. 

I claim:
 1. A cell phone personal safety alarm, comprising: a cell phone having a GPS receiver, a camera, a microphone, an autodialer, and a speaker, the cell phone having a front face, a rear face, opposing side faces, and opposing end faces; an emergency alert button disposed on the cell phone; an emergency alert button guard disposed proximate the emergency alert button, the guard being positionable to prevent accidental activation of the alert button; flashing lights disposed on at least one surface of the cell phone; a switch disposed on the cell phone, the switch activating the flashing lights; a first electronic circuit for generating an alarm, the first electronic circuit being disposed in the cell phone; and a second electronic circuit connected to the emergency alert button for activating the autodialer to automatically dial e-911, for activating the camera to stream live video of an emergency situation to a secure remote database server for storage thereon, for obtaining coordinates of the cell phone's location from the GPS receiver, and for transmitting the coordinates to the automatically dialed e-911 emergency response center when the emergency alert button is pressed.
 2. The cell phone personal safety alarm according to claim 1, wherein the second electronic circuit is connected to the first electronic circuit to generate the alarm responsive to pressing the emergency alert button.
 3. The cell phone personal safety alarm according to claim 1, wherein the guard is in operable communication with the first electronic circuit to generate the alarm responsive to moving the guard to a position allowing actuation of the emergency alert button.
 4. The cell phone personal safety alarm according to claim 3, wherein the second electronic circuit is in operable communication with the first electronic circuit to silence the alarm responsive to pressing the emergency alert button.
 5. The cell phone personal safety alarm according to claim 1, wherein the guard is a U-shaped alarm shield pivotally attached to the cell phone by a hinge biased to lock the shield in a closed position over the emergency alert button.
 6. The cell phone personal safety alarm according to claim 1, wherein the switch is in operable communication with the camera to initiate video recording to the phone's internal memory responsive to actuating the switch.
 7. The cell phone personal safety alarm according to claim 6, wherein the second electronic circuit is in operable communication with the camera to divert said internal memory recording to said live video streaming responsive to pressing the emergency alert button.
 8. A cell phone personal safety alarm, comprising: a two-part shell case, the two parts snapping together to form a case dimensioned and configured for holding a cell phone therein, the case having a front face, a rear face, opposing side faces, and opposing end faces; an emergency alert button disposed on the case; an emergency alert button guard disposed proximate the emergency alert button, the guard being positionable to prevent accidental activation of the alert button; flashing lights disposed on the case; a switch disposed on one of the case faces, the switch activating the flashing lights; a first electronic circuit disposed in the case for generating an alarm; and a second electronic circuit disposed in the case, the second electronic circuit being connected to the emergency alert button; and a port connection on the case adapted for connecting the second electronic circuit to the cell phone, the cell phone having a GPS receiver, a camera, a microphone, an autodialer, and a speaker, the second electronic circuit generating a signal to the cell phone for activating the autodialer to automatically dial e-911, the second electronic circuit generating a signal to the cell phone for activating the camera to stream live video of an emergency situation to a secure remote database server for storage thereon, the second electronic circuit generating a signal to the cell phone for obtaining coordinates of the cell phone from the GPS receiver and for transmitting the coordinates to the automatically dialed e-911 emergency response center.
 9. The cell phone personal safety alarm according to claim 8, wherein the second electronic circuit is connected to the first electronic circuit to generate the alarm responsive to pressing the emergency alert button.
 10. The cell phone personal safety alarm according to claim 8, wherein the guard is in operable communication with the first electronic circuit to generate the alarm responsive to moving the guard to a position that allows actuation of the emergency alert button.
 11. The cell phone personal safety alarm according to claim 10, wherein the second electronic circuit is in operable communication with the first electronic circuit to silence the alarm responsive to pressing the emergency alert button.
 12. The cell phone personal safety alarm according to claim 8, wherein the guard is a U-shaped alarm shield pivotally attached to the cell phone by a hinge biased to lock the shield in a closed position over the emergency alert button.
 13. The cell phone personal safety alarm according to claim 8, wherein the switch is in operable communication with the camera to initiate video recording to the phone's internal memory responsive to actuating the switch.
 14. The cell phone personal safety alarm according to claim 13, wherein the second electronic circuit is in operable communication with the camera to divert said internal memory recording to said live video streaming responsive to pressing the emergency alert button.
 15. A computer software product operable in a mobile cellular device, the software product comprising a non-transitory medium readable by a processor, the non-transitory medium having stored thereon a set of instructions for a cell phone personal safety alarm, the set of instructions including: (a) a first sequence of instructions which, when executed by the processor, causes said processor to activate flashing lights disposed on the mobile cellular device responsive to actuation of a switch disposed on the device; (b) a second sequence of instructions which, when executed by the processor, causes said processor to generate an audible alarm responsive to displacement of an emergency alert button guard on the device; (c) a third sequence of instructions which, when executed by the processor, causes said processor to, responsive to pressing an emergency alert button on the device, activate an autodialer in the device, said autodialer automatically dialing an e-911 emergency response center; (d) a fourth sequence of instructions which, when executed by the processor, causes said processor to, responsive to pressing said emergency alert button on the device, activate a camera on the device, said camera transmitting a stream of live video to a secure remote database server for storage thereon; and (e) a fifth sequence of instructions which, when executed by the processor, causes said processor to, responsive to pressing said emergency alert button on the device, transmit GEO-location aware data of said device to said emergency response center.
 16. The computer software product according to claim 15, further comprising a sixth sequence of instructions which, when executed by the processor, causes said processor to initiate video recording to the mobile cellular device's internal memory responsive to the actuation of said switch.
 17. The computer software product according to claim 15, further comprising a seventh sequence of instructions which, when executed by the processor, causes said processor to silence the alarm responsive to pressing the emergency alert button.
 18. The computer software product according to claim 16, further comprising an eighth sequence of instructions which, when executed by the processor, causes said processor to divert said internal memory recording to said live video streaming responsive to pressing the emergency alert button. 